Finally, a game from the perspective of the black pieces! Here, I played a French Defense, which has been my most common opening as of late for the black pieces, especially in bullet and blitz. After 1. e4 e6, my opponent brought out some very strange opening theory...


2. f3 is completely absurd, to be completely honest. I read a whole book on the French, and I can assure you that this did not come up in the list of viable sidelines (A look through my copy of MCO-15 gives much the same result). It's completely unnecessary for white to weaken their king in this way, but I guess it does the job of avoiding theory.

After 2...d5 3. Bd3 dxe4 4. Bxe4 Nf6 5. Bd3 Nc6, my position was obviously pleasant, while white is clearly constrained. The bishop (which has taken a ton of tempo to go from d3 to e4 and back again) is completely blocking in any conception of development, while the king's knight has to develop with the mediocre 6. Ne2, blocked by the poorly pushed pawn.


After 6... Bd6 (always a useful move to allow for some tactical ideas, including the Greek Gift and attacks along the e1-h4 diagonal) 7. Nc3 constitutes the first proper development of the entire game for white, though this is quickly nullified after 7...Nd5 8. Nxd5 exd5, the exchange removing black's only active piece. At this point, white is clearly worse, but if they are able to castle, the position could hold.


Castling was essentially required, but instead, my opponent played 9. c4 - it appears principled to get some pawn presence in the center, but there was really no substitute for hiding the king in this position. It's not even like the position crumbles under one specific response; many lines undo white's setup here.


I found the most obvious winning move with 9...Qh4+, beginning to attack on that same weakened diagonal. Here, 10. g3 to block is essentially forced, creating some horrible longterm damage to the structure near the king, but just barely holding on.


However, my opponent did not seem to have a tactical sense for the position, instead choosing 10. Ng3??, simply losing the full knight after 10...Bxg3, with my opponent unable to take back due to the queen pinning the h-pawn to the rook.


After 11. Kf1 Nd4, my opponent seemed interested in giving another gift after 12. Bf5??, simply allowing me to bring my bishop to the party with 12...Bxf5. Now up two pieces, it's my advantage to convert.


13. d3 O-O-O 14. Be3 was played, then 14...dxc4, working with the rook newly aligned on the d-file to defend the strong knight on d4. My opponent made a rather unsound move here that allowed me a large amount of tactical opportunities with 15. dxc4, allowing me to reveal an attack on the queen whenever I wish by moving the knight.


At this point, the engine says that 15...Nc2 is the best move, and that makes sense, but I figured there was no reason not to bring all my pieces to the show with 15...Rhe8, every piece now as active as it possibly can be. (Apparently the engine doesn't like this move, because white's best move afterwards is to remove the untouchable bishop with 16.hxg3 Qxh1+ 17. Kf2)


After 16. Qd2, defending the bishop, I got the chance to detonate one of my favorite moves I've ever had the joy of playing on a chessboard.
16...Nxf3!! is so many things at oncee - it's a discovered double attack on the queen, it puts yet another piece right in front of white's king, and it's mate in 7 with perfect play. If I'm going to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure if I saw anything concrete here or if this move just looked incredible (I did only play it in 9 seconds, after all), but it was played nonetheless.


After 17. Qe2 Bd3 immediately pins the queen to the king, guaranteeing me even more material and beginning a series of exchanges. 18. Rd1 Bxe2+ 19. Kxe2 Rxd1 (Here, 19...Ng1+ would have been an incredible way to finish the game - no matter what rook takes the knight, ...Qg4+ and ...Rd1 is checkmate. I opted to just trade down into a winning endgame, as I tend to prefer, especially in low time.)


20. Rxd1 Nxh2 21. Rd3 Ng4 22. Kf3 Rxe3+ 23. Rxe3 Nxe3 24. Kxe3 and I'm left a queen and bishop up with no other pieces left for my opponent.


In the ensuing mild time scramble, my opponent attempted a standard stalemate trap by trying to run the king forward, but it wasn't very long before I finished them off with mate on d6.


Honestly, part of my doesn't believe I played this game. It looks too bold, too sure of its own self, willing to put so many pieces hanging and just throw everything at the king, like some 19th century friendly match. Well, in the meantime, here's to more games like this from all of us.

In this one, I'm playing as the white pieces. This game started off with a surprising amount of theory for a game this low-rated.

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 Bg7 5. Qd2 O-O constitutes what's generally called the 150 Attack, with white immediately looking to challenge the important bishop on g7.


The next move I played was sub-optimal but still okay - 6. h3 covers the g4 square to prevent the knight arriving there to trade off the e3 bishop. Another move that does the same job with slightly better results would have been f2-f3, more simply preparing g2-g4 while also leaving the h-pawn available to move twice in one go.


After 6...a6 7. Nf3 b5 8. Bh6, the main idea of my position is realized - get the bishop to h6, trade for black's bishop on g7, and exploit the weakened dark squares for an attack - with step one of the plan completed, the rest would have to come into fruition later...


After 8...e5 9. Bxg7 Kxg7 10. O-O-O, the final step remains, build a kingside attack, which shouldn't be particularly hard - all but one of black's pieces are on the back rank, and the kingside pawns are ill-equipped to defend the dark squares.
With kings on opposite sides, even a lower rated player should know the only answer is to storm the pawns and see who wins.


10...Qd7, already a poor move, just allowed me to start the attack first with 11. h4. At this point, stopping the h-pawn with 11...h5 would have been the best move, but instead, 11...c5 was played. After the pawn sacrifice 12. h5 Nxh5 to open the h-file, I missed a key idea which would have won the game on the spot.
13. Rxh5! is a fairly sensible exchange sacrifice - I'm sure I noticed it in the few seconds I had to make a move, but without any specific continuation in mind, I chose against playing it.
However, there was a way forward that would have forced my opponent to sacrifice their queen. After 13...gxh5 14. Qg5+ Kh8 15. Qf6+ Kg8 16. Nd5 exd4 17. Qg5+ Kh8 18. Nf6, black is forced to sacrifice their queen with 18...Qg4 19. Nxg4, otherwise Qh6-Qh7# would be unstoppable.



Instead of that, however, I played another pawn sacrifice, 13. g4, either looking to kick the knight out or draw the queen offside where I would play Be2, and bring the second rook to the g-file. However, this seemed to be a little too saucy for the engine, as Stockfish isn't impressed after 13...Qxg4 14. Be2 Qf4


However, instead of that, my opponent quickly played 13...Nf6??, losing the game on the spot. That's the thing about these Pirc Defense positions - it is really simple for white to sacrifice a pawn or two on the kingside and immediately take your soul if you don't know exactly what you're doing. Quickly, I found the winning move, 14. Qh6+.


After 14...Kg8 15. Nd5, black is in a tough position. The knight on f6 is completely undefended, but it cannot move, as it is the only defense against Qxh7#. The only defense the computer can manage is to sacrifice the knight with 15...Nh5 16. gxh5 f6 - this still leads to checkmate for white, but they must find a rather long series of moves involving a few sacrifices to get there.
(For those interested, the line is 17. hxg6 Ra7 18. Bc4!! bxc4 19. gxh7+ Qxh7 20. Rdg1! Bg4 21. Rxg4+ Kf7 22. Qxh7+ Ke8 23. Qxa7 Nc6 24. Nxf6+ Rxf6 25. Rg8+ Rf8 26. Rxf8+ Kxf8 27. Rh8#)



However, instead of all of this, my opponent simply lost the game. 15...Qxg4?? is a few moves too late - it completely fails to address the crucially hanging knight, and technically gives up a royal fork after 16. Nxf6+, but 16...Kh8 17. Qxf8#/Qxh7# is obviously the better prize. Not wanting to see it played out, my opponent resigned after 16. Nxf6+.


I would call this a simple case of "Know Thy Opening". I used to play this same Pirc Defense setup for quite a while as black. While it did do a good job of catching many early opponents off guard, as my rating climbed, more and more seemed to have experience against it, and games like this would often come my way.
Simply put, if there is a setup like this against your opening, you must have a set plan to combat it, even in a 3-minute online blitz game.

Alright, once again, myself playing with the white pieces here.

I started off with my first and most common opening, the Italian Game, with 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4


My opponent responded with what is apparently called the Paris Defense with 3...d6, and this is what actually got me to re-study my opening.
I've studied for 3...Bc5 and 3...Nf6, but for some reason, this decent move slipped under my radar.


4. c3 follows through with the usual Italian plan of playing for d4, and 4... Bg4 follows up the pawn push with developing the light-squared bishop.


At this point, I just castled, 5. O-O. What I should have done was played 5. Qb3!, winning a pawn at the very least with the double attack on b7 and f7, Opera Game-style.
The lines I looked at after the game were:
5... Na5 6. Bxf7 Ke7 7. Qa4 Kxf7 8. Qxa5 being better for white, as black can no longer castle.
5... Qd7 6. Qxb7 Rb8 7. Qa6 Bxf3 8. gxf3 with the damaged structure on the kingside being not terrible for white, as you can still castle queenside.
Regardless, what happened in the game after I castled followed 5... Qd7 6. d4 O-O-O?! where I absolutely should have just played 7. d5! and forced the knight to move, but instead I played 7. Nbd2?, the queen losing contact of d4 and dropping the all-important central pawn.
My guess as to why I did this was that I was just that worried about getting doubled f-pawns that I felt the need to overprotect the knight before I could move my queen, but just playing 7. d5 would have allowed me to play Nbd2 without losing anything.


After 7... exd4 is when I cross into "losing position territory", with 8. Nb3!? dxc3 9. bxc3 giving me a horrid queenside structure.
9... Ne5 then started a flurry of exchanges with 10. Nxe5 dxe5 11. Qxd7+ Rxd7.


12. h3 Bh5 13. Be3 Nf6 and my position goes from bad to worse after 14. Nc5? Bxc5 15. Bxc5 Kb8? with my opponent luckily not playing the devastating 15... Nxe4


16. Rfe1 Rd2 17. Rab1 b6 18. Be3 Rc2 19. g4 Bg6 20. Bb3 Rxc3 21. f3 Rd8 22. h4 h5 23. g5 Ne8 24. Bd5 c5? with my opponent not finding 24... Rxd5! as 25. exd5 Bxb1 and the rook unable to take due to its duty to defend the bishop.


25. a4 Nc7 26. Ba2 f6 27. a5 b5 28. Bf2 fxg5 29. Rec1 Rxf3 30. Rxc5 a6 31. Kg2??, with the engine giving some crazy nonsense with 31. Rxc7 Rxf2 32. Rxg7 Rxa2 33. Rxg6 where even then white is down 2 pawns and the resulting rook endgame is losing.


31. Bxe4 Rxe5 32. Rxf2+? is still winning, but 32. Rd2 was crushing
32... Kxf2 33. Bxb1 34. Bxb1 Rd5 35. Rxd5 Nxd5 36. hxg5 and the endgame has finally simplified - bishop and two pawns versus knight and four pawns. In serious play, black should win this game every time, but I saw no reason not to fight on.


36... Kc7 37. Kg3 b4 38. Kh4 b3 39. Kxh5 and even at this point, with my king having become very active, 39... Ne7 still holds onto the game, as my king would not be able to get to the pawn on g8 in time.


But, my opponent's understanding of the endgame seemed to just boil down to "push the pawn", so 39... b2?? is played, and the engine evaluates this as a dead draw due to the move 40. Kg6!, and the king gets in to take the pawn on g8 - after both pawns promote, the pieces are forced to sacrifice themselves for the queens, with the resulting king and pawn endgame being drawn.


After 40... Nc3 41. Bd3, just promoting with 41... b1=Q 42. Bxb1 Nxg1 43. Kxg7 Nc3 44. g6 Nd5 45. Kf7 Kd7 46. g7 Ne7 and the previously mentioned draw is reached
However, 41... Kd6 was played, and after 42. Kxg7 Ke7 43. g6, black needs to bring the knight back to help prevent the promotion of white's g-pawn, however, the critical error occurs instead with 43... b1=Q??


44. Bxb1 Nxb1 puts the knight too far away to assist the king in preventing white from promoting, and after 45. Kh8, my opponent seemed to realize this, and resigned.


Let this be a strong lesson to the aspiring player - never resign even when an endgame position looks hopeless, get your king active in the endgame, and play on until the end.

This blitz game was played on chess.com, myself playing with the white pieces.

After 1. d4 d6, I decided to take it into territory I know slightly well after 2. e4, transposing into a Pirc Defense, which was my main defense against 1.e4 with black for a few months.
2... g6 3. Nf3 b6 4. Be2 c5?? the engine rates it as about +2 if only I play 5. dxc5, where 5... dxc5 6. Qxd8+ Kxd8 gives myself an obvious advantage, and 5... bxc5 6. Qd5! traps a rook - a no-brainer move if there ever was one.


But, of course, I have no brain, and 5. d5 was played instead - still winning, but not as decisive an advantage. After the expected 5... Nf6 6. Nc3 Bg7, the plan to trade off the dark-squared bishop commences after 7. Be3 O-O 8. Qd2 Ng4 looking to trade knight for bishop - at this point, I honestly didn't mind, since black is so clearly underdeveloped.


9. O-O-O looks sensible enough, but the engine rates it as an error, giving an advantage for black - I suspect it may have something to do with the amount of space black has on the queenside, but in the moment I didn't see much in the cards as an immediate 9... b5 drops a pawn, though the engine considers it the second-best move, so what do I know?


Of course, this evaluation rapidly fades away after 9... e5, where I reject the teachings of Anarchy Chess and refuse to take en passant with 10. h3 Nxe3 11. Qxe3, where I considered myself to be better (despite the engine's cries of "Draw!, Draw!")
11... Nd7 12. g4 h6 13. h4 Nf6 trying to make a kingside attack, but the g-pawn is attacked twice and defended by none, threatening to win it and extinguish the attack.


Only one move works here, that being 14. Nh2!

Similar to how my opponent created a double-attack, I created a double-defense, with the f-pawn now free to move forward to defend its neighbor if that becomes necessary.

My opponent seemed to believe that there were no more prospects for them on the kingside, so the brazen 14... a5? was played, immediately running into 15. g5, the entire point of my 13th move!

in fact, the best move in the previous position was for black to reatreat the knight to either e8 or h7 in anticipation of g5.

15... Nh5 was the wrong place for the knight to go, as it's left incredibly vulnerable with the easily pinned defender of the pawn on g6, an immediate 16. gxh6 Bh8 showing the weakness of black's position - despite having the glorious bishop on the long diagonal, it's been shoved into the corner!


17. Bxh5 gxh5 instantly rips open the black king's defenses, where the pieces begin their harrassment.
18. Rdg1+ Kh7 and I've run out of checks, but the king is cut off along the open file - additionally, the h4 pawn is completely undefended from black's queen


Not satisfied with revealing the defense of just one pawn, this knight does it again with 19. Nf3, the best move, with the now-defended pawn on h4 serving the vital purpose of holding down the g5 square, where many of my pieces would like to get to for a big attack.


19... Rg8? 20. Rxg8 as played is suboptimal, but still winning - instead 20. Ng5+ would have forced black to sacrifice an exchange, as running the king forces them to part ways with their queen after either 20... Kg6 21. Ne6+ or immediately lose after 20... Kxh6 21. Nxf7+ Kh7 22. Qh6#


20... Qxg8 21. Ng5+ One move too late! Alas, this is still completely winning, as after 21... Kg6 22. Rg1, the rook's alignment with the queen along the sensitive g-file becomes too much for the position to bear.


Not a single line can preserve both black's king and queen, but my opponent tries with 22... Kf6?, trying to give the queen an opportunity to get out of the way. However, this falls into mate in 9 moves no matter what happens according to the engine after 23. Nh7+!!


The attack on the queen and king at the same time would usually be devastating enough on its own, but the queen can take the knight, as my opponent did with 23... Qxh7?, but, the deflection of the queen from the all-important g5 square leads to black's doom, as 24. Qg5# finishes the game with the help of the central pawns.